


Quarantine

by geeksthetics



Series: A Group of Maladjusted Young Adults [5]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans (Comics), Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Domestic, just an idea i got from reading an old teen titans comic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 08:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21115673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geeksthetics/pseuds/geeksthetics
Summary: Lilith sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of her nose hard enough to leave bruises. “Okay, look, I get it, we all have things to do and nerves are frayed and we’re ready to wring each other’s necks and all but can we at least please keep it down so I can hear my own thoughts?”





	Quarantine

**Author's Note:**

> not my best but it's i need more of just random domestic scenes between the titans

Music pumped through the speakers in the living area loud enough to drown out everyone’s thoughts. When a cabinet full of coffee mugs crashed onto the kitchen counters, nobody reacted. Upbeat synth pop muffled the sounds of Karen and Roy’s shouting as Lilith carefully stepped around the broken glass. Duran Duran drowned out Donna’s calls to keep the noise down. Wally continued to nod along to the beat, oblivious to the children’s shrieks as they (very loudly) put together a puzzle with Artemis. Wally lay on the floor next to the speakers, eyes closed in euphoric bliss. Lame as it was, he found comfort in 80’s hits.

The music suddenly cut off. Wally’s eyes snapped open. He sprang up into a sitting position ready to take down whoever it was that interrupted relaxation. He was met with a furious Amazon. Donna stood over him with her hands clenched at her sides. Wally couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was even when she looked ready to murder him. Robbie and Lian poked their heads around her, trying to get a glimpse at what they all knew would soon be a dead man.

Before Donna could wrap her hands around the speedster’s neck, Mal came into view. “Here.” He placed large noise-cancelling headphones over Wally’s ears. “Now he won’t bother any of us,” Mal said to Donna. She rolled her eyes and walked away. Mal only shook his head at Wally before returning to the kids.

Lilith rubbed her temple. She’d finally gotten Cerdian to fall asleep only to remember that she had a pile of paperwork sitting on her desk waiting to be completed but it was impossible to concentrate on anything. The energy in the entire Tower crashed over her in forceful waves of tension, the cacophony of noise surrounding her no easier to deal with, and to top it all off, she was absolutely famished. The music had at least been eliminated, Wally lying back on the floor with his eyes closed, nodding along to his headphones. The kids still screeched and normally Lilith would ask them to quiet down a bit for hers and Cerdian’s sakes but today she felt bad. The play area was under reconstruction and the pool was being cleaned. They couldn’t leave the Tower so they had to make do with what they could. Karen and Roy, on the other hand, could be silenced. The two still argued over the broken cabinet.

“I told you to be more careful! These are _our things_, Roy, _our_ _valuables_,” Karen berated. Lilith ducked her head as Karen flung out an arm to gesture at the rest of the cabinets. The half-witch was trying to maneuver herself around her friends as she filled a plate with an assortment of snacks to take back to her room.

Roy raised and dropped his hands exasperatedly. He turned away from the fridge where he had been scavenging for whatever remnants of leftovers there were to create some sort of stir fry for dinner. “It’s not that big a deal, Karen. I’ll pay for it all. Is it your mug? Is that what this is about? I’ll replace it. I have enough money to buy you _the company that manufactures them_. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Karen grew increasingly frustrated at Roy’s nonchalance. “It’s not about the broken mug, it’s that it’s broken to begin with!” she exclaimed. “If you had taken more care of the cabinet in the first place, we wouldn’t have to clean up this entire mess.”

“Give him a break, Karen,” Donna said from where she sat on a barstool. She didn’t look up from her magazine. “It wasn’t his fault. Those cabinets were installed by Garth and you know he doesn’t know how to properly use power tools. They were going to collapse eventually.”

“Of course, you have _his_ back,” Mal muttered. He was the only one trying to clean up the mess the broken cabinet had made. Artemis had offered but Mal waved her off and only asked her to hold his daughter. Irritation prickled Lilith as she passed him by on her way to their secret candy stash. She almost sighed as she knew what was bound to happen. Mal didn’t normally argue with his friends, much less over something as trivial as a broken cabinet. They were all really getting on each other’s nerves.

Donna’s eyes narrowed. “What was that, Duncan?”

Mal shrugged, casually cleaning as he turned to face Donna. “All I’m saying is that whenever Roy has something to say, you’re always right there to back him up.”

“Yeah and what about it?” Lilith rolled her eyes at the deadly tone in Donna’s voice.

“Maybe you should let him fight his own fights. The guy already has one mom; he doesn’t need his girlfriend to be his second one.” Mal paused, seeming to think about something. “Or are you broken up now? You two go up and down more than a yo-yo, never deciding whether to call yourselves lovers or friends-with-benefits.” Lilith’s stomach dropped at the innocent look Mal shot Donna. “Maybe it’s just your fear of commitment keeping you from deciding, you know – divorce and all.”

Donna’s stool crashed to the floor as she suddenly stood. “That’s it.”

“ENOUGH.” Lilith dropped her plate and loudly slammed her hands on the marble countertops. Her anger must have triggered her powers as cracks began to spider web across the countertops, shallow at first, then deepening until the kitchen island buckled. Dust flew up into their faces as the heavy marble thudded against the crackling wood. Everyone was staring at her, even Wally who sat up on his elbows, headphones now around his neck. The children sat wide-eyed on the floor, having instantly plopped themselves down at Lilith’s outburst. Silence hung over them like a wet blanket. No one dared to speak.

Lilith sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of her nose hard enough to leave bruises. “Okay, look, I get it, we all have things to do and nerves are frayed and we’re ready to wring each other’s necks and all but can we at least _please_ keep it down so I can hear my own thoughts?” No one responded.

Yesterday, Dick and Garth had gone back in time to twelfth century Italy to take care of some time travelling villains and after doing some mandatory post-time-travelling blood work, they discovered they’d contracted the pneumonic plague. Fortunately, the plague is curable if caught quickly so they’d both started taking antibiotics. Unfortunately, since the pneumonic plague is the most contagious of the plagues, everyone who’d made contact with Dick and Garth had to be quarantined – and “everyone” happened to be the Titans and their kids. And since it took some time to develop, they had to spend several days in lockdown to make sure nobody had contracted the disease. Absolutely nobody had been happy with that news. Dick and Garth were lucky they had to remain in quarantine rooms in the med bay or else one of the other Titans would have strangled the two by now.

Finally, Mal’s broad shoulders relaxed. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, turning to Donna with an apologetic smile. “Lilith’s right. I’m sorry, Donna. You know I didn’t mean what I said. I was just letting my nerves speak for me. It’s no excuse, though.”

Donna was already shaking her head. “Oh, Mal, you don’t need to apologize to me. All of our emotions are running high and we were all bound to say something stupid. Here,” she said, picking up a dustpan and broom, “let me help you.”

Roy bent down to pick up some broken ceramic pieces. “No, let me do it. I broke the cabinet after all.”

Karen shook her head and joined the others. “We’ll all do it.”

Lilith sighed again, this time relieved. Things would be calmer now – at least she hoped.

“So,” Artemis said. Everyone turned to her. She was still relatively new to the team, not really speaking up much, choosing to watch instead of participate. “I’m glad we’re all getting along now, but how are we going to do with the whole food situation? Because I’m starting to get hungry and I don’t think I’m the only one.” On cue, Lian and Tommy began to clutch their stomachs and dramatically groan.

“I want – pizza,” Lian said, feigning weakness.

“Me too,” Tommy joined in.

Roy shook his head, pointing his wooden spoon at his children. “We’re eating stir fry.” The kids all groaned.

“Yeah, no offense, Roy, I don’t think there’s gonna be enough for eight superheroes, a speedster, and four kids,” Wally said, dubiously eyeing the large pan barely half filled with leftover teriyaki chicken and an assortment of vegetables that didn’t look as bright as they should be.

Lilith ran a hand through her hair. “Maybe we could get someone to Zeta some food to us?”

“Can’t do that,” Donna said. “The League has access to Zeta Tubes and that would mean admitting to them that we brought back a centuries-old plague into the modern day.”

Roy vigorously waved his spoon between himself and the others. “_We_ didn’t do anything, Dick and Garth brought the plague.” Donna pursed her lips at him and narrowed her eyes but otherwise didn’t respond.

“Man, Garth and Dick really messed things up.” Wally joined the rest of his friends at the kitchen, Lian hanging from his neck while Robbie rode on Wally’s back. Artemis followed with Karen and Mal’s daughter and Tommy in her arms. “Mal and I brought back a _caveman_ and managed not to bring any deadly diseases with us.”

“Wait.” Artemis held up her hands, both kids now sitting on the kitchen countertops. “You guys brought back a _caveman_?”

Mal shrugged. “Yeah, Gnarrk.”

Artemis waited for further explanation from the others but received none. “That’s it? There’s nothing else to add to that story? Nothing at all?”

The others shared looks. “No,” Karen said, “I think that’s pretty much it. Mal and Wally time travelled and brought back Gnarrk.”

Artemis blinked and dropped her arms. “Okay, then.”

Donna smiled sympathetically at the newcomer. “Trust me, if it was a story worth telling, Wally would probably brag about it any time travelling was mentioned.”

“Mommy, I’m hungry,” Robbie quietly whined.

Donna’s eyes softened at her son and run a hand through his curls. “I know, honey, we’ll figure it out in a moment.”

Everyone looked at each other. They had to figure out something soon.

Then, Wally had a sudden realization: “Holy shit, we forgot to water Garth and Dick.”


End file.
